Working mornings doesn’t work for me even though I’d rather difficult that than deal with drunks. I’m simply a basket case at 7am, although I can STAY up until then easy, I can’t wake up then and be coherent. If you can’t stay awake at night, try early mornings. Maybe getting up at 3am rather than staying up til 3am will work for you. Most markets have some decent trips in the early morning.
I usually crank up the ac. But avoid fats and greasy food , they will slow you down . drink warm tea or coffee instead of energy drink . But I end up drinking red bull once a while . maybe be pull over and stretch a bit between trips .
On weekends and any days the kids don’t have school, I start at 3am. I get the tail end of the people going home from the bars, usually bartenders and a few that are still a little wasted but more often safely out of the puking zone. I get a lot of airport and train station runs, the casino crowd heading out from overnight, and a couple of after hours clubs.
Then comes the people heading to work and later in the morning I get the runs to the religious facilities with some older folks who no longer drive. Saturday’s it’s non-orthodox Jewish heading out, Sunday the church crowd. I can stay pretty busy until 10 or 11am, then break and head back out to do runs for people going out to dinner and such.
I think I figured out what I’m going to do about this. As suggested above I could just wake up really early. Instead of 3AM what I’m thinking of doing is going to bed at 8 or 9 PM and then waking up at 1:30 or 2 AM. From there I get the drunks home and when that’s done go home around four in the morning and go back to sleep.
Look at your sleep habits. The better quality sleep you get, the more rested you will be. Look at your over all health. That can also effect your endurance. How old are you? Another factor. As someone else mentioned…what do you eat? Are you training your body to depend on caffeine and other stuff to wake up?
After midnight is when i crank up the hardcore metal tunes. I have one of those 160gb old school iPods, which is loaded with hard stuff. Death metal, try it; however, it’s best in between pick-ups (e.g., after drop-offs, heading to new pick-up, heading home, etc.). If necessary, I’ll roll down the windows while blasting my metal too.
I try to be as flexible as possible with my hours, but I wouldn’t drive for Uber for the drunk @sshole 2am crowd, if I were wide a freaking wake ! Alcohol, and the people who use it, suck. Smoke weed. Its safer and not near so hard-core.
I have found energy drinks work for me. About an hour or so after I drink one, they kick in. I will drink one around half way through a 10+ hour day (around 8 or 9 pm), so I am able to wind down around 3 or 4 am.
Power naps are the answer…around 12am things should be calm because everybody that goes to bars are already there… So recline you seat at a safe location, like a hotel and take a power nap and get back at it around 2am…
Worst shift is 12 midnight to 12 noon. Not only are you dealing with the Circadian Rythm slow down @ 3-4 am,you get to feel like a vampire driving into the sunrise. But,you get the best cut of the bar crowd,along with the best of the airport runs.
You rely on cocaine,and it will get you. Kills the kidneys after 20 years.
I knew a guy in his late 20’s,heart exploded. I remember the sound his metal coffin made sliding in the moseleum wall. I knew a guy owned a nightclub,x marine,perfect shape,fried his brain( overheated) His organs were in perfect shape to be harvested 3 days later. Caffeine pills cause heart attacks.
It is all in when you start. If you are hitting the mornings, then the evenings and late bar scene will be rough, on all accounts. The only thing I can suggest is to take a break in the evenings. There has to a lull. In my market, I would say it is from 8 PM to 10:00 PM. I would get home, take a nap, and have enough energy to head back out for the later night crowd. However, lately, with Ubereats in this market, I have not been out as late.
A while back Lyft had a code for their drivers for automatic gold status at Starbucks. With that I can get 2 stars for every $1 I spend, get gift cards for birthdays and such, and at 125 stars it’s a free item. They have other promos too that boost the star count. Have to hit a certain number of stars a year to keep gold status. If I’m out of gift cards, that’s where tip money goes.
A word of caution, avoid the 5hr energy products or the energy drinks, they often contain so much caffeine or sugar that it can cause other issues. I’ve tried the 5 hr energy, I hate hospitals, the heart palpitations it gave me almost sent me to the ER. Also if you have existing heart issues, it can exaggerate them, and is often inadvisable if you take some BP meds.
Don’t stay out till 4AM - I grab a gas station coffee and water, sip on those, and have converstaions. Usually I’m done at 0230 or so, and normally get up at 0545 on weedkays (no alarm on weekends to recover from late night Ubers).